#15 (401 words)

Anne holds Alvarez, no longer bothered by the thick sweet blood pumping out through the wounds in his chest and stomach. At first she’d been surprised by its generous oozing. It wasn’t gushing like the movies, or very thin or shiny, but it was more than she’d ever witnessed.

She was afraid of the presence of blood, the amount of it, what may be living within it.

Now she cradles the sweaty head of Alvarez in one hand, his blood on her cheek, her hands, some in her hair. She uses her other hand to press her jacket to the slashes on his body. Calling for help, she forgets what she is doing and realizes she has relaxed the pressure. The jacket squelches as she pushes down again.

“Alvarez, stay with me,” she says when his eyelids begin to slide close. She jiggles her arm around to shake his face awake.

“Alvarez!”

He tries to focus on her. He is mumbling something to her. A prayer maybe? Prayer is all they’ve got left it seems. How long has she been screaming for assistance? Feels like hours. It’s probably been closer to fifteen minutes. She closes her eyes and tries the lord’s prayer but doesn’t finish. She is seeing over and over the murder of Alvarez.

Anne was hailing a cab when three boys, or were they men? No. Grown men wouldn’t do such a thing. But boys wouldn’t either. No one would do a thing like this. Only these three did. Three people came out of the shadows. Maybe they weren’t human? And attacked this man. They hit him over the head with a stick? A bat? And when Alvarez fell, they did not stop.

The filth from their mouths, Anne thinks, rocking Alvarez in her arms. No one is going to help them.

At first, Anne had feared the lone man, standing against a building a few hundred feet ahead. She saw his brown skin, his work clothes. But it was those three with skin that held the moonlight, hands with weapons that gleamed in the same manner. Looking clean but squalor within. If Alvarez hadn’t been there, she would’ve been the one bleeding here. Dying.

She realizes she has again lessened the weight against the bleeding. She panics as she puts all her strength against him. She wants to thank him but he’s dead.